The word sanctification means "to set apart for a purpose." Another form of the word is often translated "holy." The work of God in the sanctification of believers has three aspects: positional (2 Thes 2:13), progressive (1 Thes 5:23), and ultimate (Eph 5:26-27), reflecting the past, present, and future aspects of salvation. In Romans 8:1-11, Paul notes the reality of positional sanctification as the believer is in union with Christ, having been justified and declared righteous. So at the moment you receive Christ, there is an immediate sanctification. Then He describes how this sanctification is worked out progressively in the life of the believer who walks according the Spirit. This is progressive sanctification. And lastly when we go to heaven there will be total and "complete" sanctification. Positional and ultimate sanctification are entirely the work of God. However progressive sanctification requires the cooperation of the believer, who is commanded to be filled with the Spirit.

Positional sanctification. Positional sanctification is the placing of believers at conversion in union with Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit at which time they are also justified and declared righteous making them positionally holy before God (Rom. 8: 29). The position of believers is reflected in the New Testament when they are referred to as "saints."

Progressive sanctification. This is the continuing moral and spiritual character transformation of a believer. It is the dynamic outworking by the Holy Spirit of the believer's union with Christ which conforms the believer to the image of Christ. The Holy Spirit who indwells the believer at salvation also provides the power for his sanctification. In essence, progressive sanctification is becoming in experience what we already are positionally in Christ. The Holy Spirit operates in believers to free them from the power of sin and death. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:2).

Unlike positional and ultimate sanctification, which are totals works of God, progressive sanctification is a work of God begun at regeneration which takes place as the believer walks in the Spirit and thereby becomes a vital part of that sanctification. The imperative of Galatians 5:16, along with the many commands in the New Testament exhorting the believer to a life of godliness, bear witness to this joint venture.

Progressive sanctification is accomplished by the Holy Spirit as the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit as a result of having no unconfessed sin in his or her life. It is an act entirely of God so that the righteous believer lives by faith and not by works. However, it involves a choice: "Be ye holy for I am holy" (1 Pet. 1:14-16).

Since holiness is God's very nature, when we receive the Holy Spirit of God we receive a holy nature. Through the Spirit's power, we can overcome sin and live righteously (Romans 8:2-4; Galatians 5:16; I Thessalonians 4:7-8). We have freedom from sin's dominion - the power to choose not to sin (John 8:34-36; Romans 6:11-25). We will not continue to live in sin, and in fact our newly given nature cannot sin (I John 3:9). We still have the ability to sin and we still have the sinful nature subdued within us (Galatians 5:6-17; I John 1:8; 2:1), but the born-again nature restrains us from habitually committing sin. As long as we let the Spirit lead us we will not sin.

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." The veil of the unbeliever is removed by faith in Christ so he can behold the glory of the Lord. The Holy Spirit gradually transforms the believer to the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18).

While sanctification is exclusively of God, its power rests entirely on the individual's holiness, the believer is constantly exhorted to work and to grow in the matters pertaining to salvation. The wonder and magnitude of the work of God in accomplishing our regeneration is the motivation for holy living. The goal then of progressive sanctification is to become in experience what we already are in position. The Word of God, the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17), as a preventative of sin (Ps 119:9-11) and means of sanctification (John 17:17), is the chief catalyst of grace in the sanctification process. The uses of spiritual gifts in the church are used by the Holy Spirit to build up the believer to maturity in Christ.

The progress of sanctification, or spiritual maturity, is marked by conflict, spiritual warfare, because our new life in Christ is on a collision course with the world, is opposed by Satan, and fought by the sinful nature within us. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that produces the tension or conflict in our life. This conflict in the life of a believer, rather than being proof sanctification's absence, is evidence of its work.

Ultimate sanctification. The final stage in the salvation process is the ultimate sanctification of the believer. This happens when we get to heaven. It is realized at resurrection when the believer will be transformed into the likeness of Christ and presented to the Lord as holy. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is both the promise and the agency for this future glorification, which includes the redemption of the body, an inheritance undefiled and eternal, and deliverance from the future wrath of God.

"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:3).

"Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless" (Eph. 5:25b-27).